Proper Down Duvet Design

Down Duvet Design
There are many different duvet designs on the market. A few are good, but most are not. Poor designs exist because they are inexpensive to sew. A few awful designs exist simply to be unique, as a marketing gimmick.

Good design has to ensure that the down filling can puff up, that the down stays on top of the sleeper, and that there are no thin cold spots. In order to achieve these characteristics, the following rules must be followed:

1. A duvet must never be sewn straight through, as this lets warmth escape. The duvet will be cold as it is nothing but thin spots. It must have inside fabric baffles to provide an even layer of down.
2. Baffles must be deep enough to allow the down to loft up fully. Often duvets are made with narrow baffles to make the duvet appear puffier due to thicker and thinner spots. The boxed baffle design shown at the right is the only appropriate baffle design.
3. A duvet must be chambered, or the down will gradually drift into the corners, leaving the centre empty and cold.
4. The chambers must be sealed off from each other. Many box duvets are made with gaps in the walls, as shown in the "X-Ray" diagram. You can't tell by looking at it, because the stitching itself is continuous, but the baffles have gaps. In the course of 2 or 3 years, most of the down will drift to the ends of the duvet.

5. Internal Seams: The duvet fabric should never be stitched straight through, but rather it should be internally tucked and sewn, with no stitches visible on the surface of the duvet.

While this takes more fabric and labour, it is much stronger, and prevents any down leaking at the seams. You will always see the stitches on the edges of the duvet, where they should be very small and tight.

The Sealed Baffle Box Design
After experimenting with many different styles over the years, St Genève found that the best is this design that originated in Europe. There is no shifting of the down, and it can loft up completely due to the extra deep baffles. There is a fabric "valve" between each chamber that is opened by the filling tube when down is being blown in. When the tube is removed, the valve closes permanently, so that each chamber is individually sealed to prevent any shifting of the down filling. This is guaranteed for the life of the duvet. St Genève sew the pattern of boxes so that they are not square, but rather a rectangle. This makes it very simple to determine which is the top and which are the sides of the duvet when changing the duvet cover and making the bed.

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